Following major earthquake, Google launches Person Finder app for Turkey

Google has launched its Person Finder service in Turkey following yesterday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake which has killed at least 217 people and injured a further 350.

First launched to assist with the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010, Person Finder offers tools that allow people to publish missing person reports and other individuals or organisations to offer information that helps find them. The tool can also be embedded in third-party websites.

Since its debut at the start of last year, Person Finder has been used for the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake in September 2010 and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March this year. Today, however, it’s available in Turkish for the first time.

A product of Google’s non-profit Google.org operation, Person Finder saw 55,100 missing person records submitted after the Haiti earthquake, 11,600 records after the New Zealand earthquake, and more than 600,000 after Japan’s disaster, according to the tool’s FAQ.

Martin Bryant Editor-in-Chief at The Next Web. You can find him on Twitter, subscribe to him on Facebook, circle him on Google+ and visit his personal site. He's based in Manchester, UK and has a thing for quirky American music and Japanese video games.